We had a great turn out for Poetry Wagon’s third expedition. Groups of kids took part, as did several shoppers and Tesco’s staff.

Busy day on the Poetry Wagon

Matt Windle before taking to the mic

Our Poets enjoyed the day, not least because they got to indulge in some festive dress- up!

Erin adding her words to the #BigBrumPoem

We were really pleased that so many people wanted to take part in what we were doing.

My favourite poem of the day was from a group of kids working in Spring Hill library. They came down with the volunteers who work with them and worked with Charlie, Matt, Spoz and Maggie. Some of them made a team poem which they read with the aplomb of acclaimed professionals!

Last participant of the day was this lady who added her verses to our #BigBrumPoem.

All poems recorded on the day will be available soon. I’ll post the link on here as soon as it’s available, or if you really can’t wait to see it, check out our channel on youtube,

Tomorrow will be the fourth day of our Love Where You Live Project, in which we tour the city of Birmingham, both performing and evoking the wonderfulness that is: POETRY. We will be at Spring Hill Tescos in Ladywood, in the car-park. If you want to come have a look and listen, do! It would be even more amazing if you would add some words and verse to the #BigBrumPoem.

#BigBrumPoem is taking shape nicely. Why don’t you have a look at it so far here. Eventually the additions from every session will be edited into one big audio-collage, that will act as a poetical map of Birmingham and everyone here in Write Down Speak Up is massively excited about it!

Manning (and womanning) the poetry wagon tomorrow will be, in no particular order, host of Brit Writers award ceremony, renowned DJ and Former Birmingham Laureate Charile Jordan; Former Young Birmingham Laureate Matt Windle; Maggie Doyle, finalist for the Bard of Worcester; ‘Kurly’, respected and well known poet, and finalist for last year’s Laureateship; and a Bostin Bloke by the name of Spoz.

Of course the BIG NEWS is that we’re going to be on the BIG SCREEN in Victoria Square! The #BigBrumPoem films are going to be running on there over the next few weeks, then we’re going to be LIVE on Saturday the 3rd December when we will be doing day 5 of the project. So, head into the city, grab a mug of mulled wine, which I know is called something else but I can’t spell it), and watch some top notch poetry from some premium performers, including the shiny, new Laureate Jan Watts. Others on our live bill will be announced in the run up to this never-been-done-before (that I know of, and even if it has it won’t have been even half as good as what our is) spectacular.

And I MUST mention while writing a competition that fits in rather splendidly with the #BigBrumPoem. It’s not our competition, and we won’t be judging it, but as you’re writing about our city anyway then why not enter the competition as well?

Welcome to Write Down, Speak Up! We are a new collective of poets from the Midlands and, well, the bottom line is we totally love our art form and everything that can be done with it especially the power of the spoken word. We’re getting ready to put some kick-ass events together across this gorgeous city of ours, and we’ll keep you posted about all of them on this blog.

Poetry is an amazing thing – it makes you feel good when you write it and when you listen to it. Okay – sometimes it doesn’t make you feel good, but it always makes you feel something. It documents everything that happens in this crazy world around us and creates a record for future folk to find out what made us tick and tock… and what turns us right off. It improves confidence, language and communication skills and helps you speak the feelings you scarcely even knew you felt.

Poetry is our favourite, and it’s not just us who think it rocks. It’s growing in popularity and status and is being enjoyed by more and more people all the time. We are a group of hard-working, experienced and reliable people who love using poetry in a range of community settings to look at social issues, to engage people and, maybe most importantly, have some fun with this wonderous thing called language.

Check out this blog to find out about our members and our upcoming activities, events and productions. Thanks for taking the time to find out a little bit about us.